Street-railway rail



(No Model.)

D. O. OREGIER.

STREET RAILWAY RAIL.

Patented Sept. 6, 1887.

NITED STATES Parent @rrrcn,

DEXVITT O. CREGIER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

STREET-RAILWAYTRAIL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 369,398, datedSeptember 6, 1887.

Application filed Doccnihcrfll, 1886. Serial No 229,143. (X inodeh} Toall whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, DEWITT O. CREGIER, a citizen of the United States,residing in Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certai n new and useful Improvements in Street-Railway Rails, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to street-railway rails in which there are twocontiguous tramways, one for the canwheels and the other for wheels ofordinary vehicles, which rails have at regular and uniform intervalsspike-holes at the center of width of the tramway for ordinary vehicles,and are secured to stringers conforming to the angle of the rails byheaded spikes driven through said holes into the stringers.

In the form of rails above referred to the spik c-heads are exposed tothe action and wear of vehicle-wheels passing over them, and arefrequently destroyed or partially destroyed to such an extent as torender them no longer useful and to prevent their removal from thestringer at all without enlarging the spike-recess in the stringer tosuch a degree that only a larger-sized spike that could not pass throughthe perforation in the rail can be tightened in such enlarged recess. Asa result of all this, the rail must be entirely removed, out, and thenshifted, so that none of its series ofspikeholes will register with therecesses of the removed spikes or with the spikes, from which theheadshave been broken or driven flush with the face of the stringer, andafter such shifting a piece of rail must then be inserted to supply theplace of the piece cut from the rail, and this necessitates frequent andexpen sive repairs and a serious interruption of trafiic on the street.A more serious objection, however, to this commonly-used railis theenlargement of the spikeholes therein by a friction between the spikeand rail, caused by a lateral strain and movement of the rail upon thespike from the lateral strain against the car-wheel tramway by heavyvehicles when turning in or out from the track, which lateral strain notonly produces such an enlargement of the holes that the spike-head losesits gripping-force, but frequently loosens the spike in the stringer,because of the leverage of the rail on the spike, owing to the locationof the spike between the center of width and inner edge of the rail; andrails having their perforations so worn are commonly condemned and theirplace supplied with new rails rather than spend the time and incur theexpense of supplying and fitting varying sizes of spikes necessary tofurther utilize the rails.

The objects of my invention are therefore to avoid these objectionablefeatures which result in the commonly-used rail, and to increase thestrength and wear of the rail, and also to isolate the spike-head fromcontact with vehicle-wheels, and at the same time reduce the leverage ofthe rail on the spike to a minimum, without any substantial change inthe form of outline or a contraction in the working surface of my railfrom the rail now commonly used. These objects are attained by a form ofconstruction of street-car rail illustratedin the accompanying drawings,in which- Figure 1 represents a transverse section of a rail embodyingmy invention secured in its operative position to a stringer conformingon its upper surface to the configuration of the rail; Fig. 2, a topplan view of the same; Fig. 3, a key-bolt, which may be used in securingthe rail to the stringer.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in the severalfigures of the drawings.

A designatesa street-car rail mounted upon a stringer, B, and having twotraniways, one tramway, O, of which is for the car-wheel and the othertramway, D, for the wheels of ordinary vehicles, said tramways beingcontiguous and so joined by a web, H, and provided with a channel orgroove, E, extending longitudinally of the rail and therefore parallelwith the tramways. The side walls of the channel are formed by theopposing walls of the trainways, and the bottom of the channel by theweb H, in which at regular intervals are a series of holes through whichspikes are passed and the driven to secure the rail thereto.

' As shown, the channel E is of greater depth than the head of the spikeG, securing the rail to the stringer; but itwould be no departure frommy invention to have an equal depth of channel and spike-head, so longas the spikehead does not project above the plane of the surface of thetramway D, so that it may have contact with the wheels of vehiclespassing over it to a degree suflicient to disturb or wear thespike-head. In practice, however, it is preferred to have the channel ofa depth in suring the depression of the spike-head below the tramway D,as shown, so that a slight increase in depth of a standard depth ofspikehead will insure any such spike-heads proj ecting above the face ofthe vehicle-tramway and the depression of the spike-head from contactwith the flange of the car-wheel as the tramway 0 becomes worn down.

When it is desirable to have the channel E of a minimum width and ofsuch a width that the narrowest vehicle-wheels cannot catch or wedge inthe channel, the T-spike Gthat is to say, a spike the head of which hasconsiderable length on both sides of the spike, but a widthcorresponding substantially to the diameter of the spikeis employed; butit would be no departure from my invention to increase the width of thechannel to such a width that vehicle-wheels may pass into it, and to usein connection therewith spikes having broad heads and of the ordinaryconstruction, for in such case the channel, after the spikes are driven,may be filled with a concrete cement, iron or steel borings or turnings,asphalt cement, or any other material suitable for such purposes; butsuch filling, as before stated, may be omitted when the width of thechannel is of such a degree as to not make it necessary; nor is myinvention limited to the employment of any special kind of fasteningdevice for securing the rail to the stringer,for instead of the ordinaryor special form of spike before referred to, which may or may not besplit, as indicated by dotted lines at a, Fig. 1, a bolt, J (shown inFig. 3,) and provided with a key or other suitable locking andtightening device, may be employed; as also shown in dotted lines at I),Fig. 1.

The channel E is preferably formed in the rail at substantially thecenter of width thereof, for the purpose of relieving, as it does, thespike from any leverage on the part of the rail, and the web H is of athickness to render the rail strong and durable; but in considering myinvention, broadly, as a novel means of isolating a spike-head fromcontact with vehicle-wheels, and as a means for avoiding the objectionsnecessarily following such a contact, my invention is not limited to thelocation of the channel at the point shown with reference to the widthof a rail of this general character, for the channel maybe at any otherpoint, so long as it does not obstruct the free passage of car-wheelsand the wheels of other vehicles along the tramway, or materiallydiminish the strength and durability of the rail.

Rails such as I have described need not necessarily be mounted upon orsecured directly or otherwise to wood stringers, but may be used inconnection with metal supports forming stringers, or to chairs securedto crossties, as shown and described in another application filedherewith, and the channels in such rails may be simultaneously formed inrolling the rail or by channeling the rail after it is other wisecompleted.

Having described my invention, what I claim,and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s

1. A streetcar rail having two trams .in differing planes, and a channelparallel with and between said trams, said channel being provided withspike or bolt holes, substantially as described.

2. A street-car rail having double trams in differing planes and ofcorresponding facediameters, and provided with a longitudinal channelbetween said trams, said channel having spike or bolt holes therein,substantially as described, whereby the spike or bolt head is isolatedfrom contact with both vehicle and car wheels, and the leverage of sucha rail on its support and on the spike or bolt is reduced to aminimum.

nnwrrr o. CREGIEB.

